Rain of Coins in Madhya Pradesh

This blog will occasionally cover fortean cases I’ve turned up that simply intrigue me. I’m not endorsing them, just putting them up for discussion and hopefully some further investigation. A good example is the rain of coins in Madhya Pradesh, India in October 2017. Rains of coins are relatively rare in the fortean literature.

According to Patrika.com, the website of an Hindi-language daily newspaper, the strange event had taken place in Devlochri village, part of the Jaisinagar Block in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. A translation of the Hindi article follows:

“Rain of coins: In a village in Madhya Pradesh (MP) it is raining coins from the sky…get to know about these weird incidents.

A thunderstorm in the district was accompanied by coins falling intermittently from the sky along with rain.

Sagar: You must have heard about it raining fishes and turtles during the rainy season, but this must be the first time that you will hear about it raining coins. That too, not one or two coins but hundreds of coins. Such a weird and impossible event, a first of its kind, was reported from Devlochri village of Jaisinagar Block.

On Wednesday afternoon, [recalled the villagers] clouds had gathered, it went dark at noon and a thunderstorm hit the district. Dozens of people and children witnessed coins falling freely from the sky along with rain. Everybody was wonderstruck hearing this and some people even rushed there to collect coins. But it had stopped raining by the time they reached, though some kids were seen with the coins in hands.

What the villagers say

Villager Hemraj Pal recalled that when he was coming back after a bath, there was a crowd of excited children near the house making a racket. When he stopped to enquire, he was told there had been a rain of coins. He said, ‘At first I didn’t believe it, but when I visited to verify it I found it was true’. He added that the children further concurred that each coin could be heard as it hit the ground. The coins were of all denominations including one, two and five rupee coins. A few young children of the village – Bira, Shiva, Jaya, Deepesh and Som – had collected hundreds of coins!

Coins fall at two or three places

According to the information gathered from the villagers, the coins did not rain down at just one place, but at two or three places. The villagers, including children, had seen coins falling at Panchayat Bhawan, at the river shore and at the edge of the hills.”

The image accompanying the original article shows some children holding what appears to be coins. No eyewitnesses are quoted in the story and I can’t find any other references to the case.

Personally, if I had to choose between raining fish and coins, coins would win every time.